The use of a support arm which swings in a horizontal plane around a vertical support member to minimize impact damage to a mailbox is generally known. Illustrations of prior art setting forth such embodiments are Virblas U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,656; Steinman U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,576; Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 2,936,143; Hull U.S. Pat. No. 1,834,775; Chauncey U.S. Pat. No. 2,054,281; Conrad U.S. Pat. No. 2,433,763; Buck U.S. Pat. No. 2,605,073; and Dowker U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,978. Adaptations of this concept have included telescoping pipe joints providing a cam effect as in the Dowker patent and the Virblas patent; and a hinging mechanism attached to the vertical support member, as in the Buck patent.
Such existing devices essentially allow the horizontal support member to rotate about the primary vertical member. They, of necessity, have moving hinges, or joints, which are susceptible to corrosion, insertion of foreign matter and component failure. Further, these devices require some sort of incorporated gravity-activated cam action or an external, additional spring component to return the mailbox to its initial possession after any contact sufficient to activate the rotational feature. Additionally, the prior art generally provides for a horizontal, rotational, support arm which, when in its intended at-rest, functional position, is at right angles to the roadway and to the path of travel of vehicles, such as snowplows, whose contact with the mailbox causes the damage which these devices seek to eliminate or minimize.
The existing prior art fails to provide an apparatus which effectively reduces the potential for damage to the mailbox and support by vehicular contact and also provides for a return to the preferred initial position of the mailbox without manual assistance or without movable and external devices which are susceptible to breakage, corrosion or fouling by foreign material.
Accordingly, a need exists for a movable mailbox support which minimizes the damage effect of external contact and returns automatically to its intended position without the need for moving parts or external and superfluous return systems.